UFC to put fighters like Conor McGregor on the blockchain

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has partnered with Dapper Labs, a company that builds digital collectibles on the blockchain to help bring the technology to the sport.

Dapper Labs is most famous for building CryptoKitties, a blockchain game where you trade digital cats. In 2017, the game was so popular it stalled the Ethereum blockchain for days.

UFC is known for mixing up fighting styles into one unique form of fighting that includes boxing, grappling and submissions. Its biggest fighter is, of course, Conor McGregor, the Irish fighter known for winning two world titles and causing mayhem in New York.

According to a statement, the UFC and Dapper Labs will create digital collectibles under the UFC brand. These will be tradeable on the Dapper Labs Flow blockchain platform, and allow fans to buy, sell and trade assets associated with the sport.

"Flow makes it easy for any developer to build blockchain apps, games, and digital assets to power them," said Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs. "Working with the UFC, we are showing what's possible when you give an engaged fanbase a real ownership stake in the game they love and the communities they're a part of."

This isn't the UFC's first crypto partnership. It has previously worked with Litecoin, advertising its logo at UFC 232. UFC fighter Ben Askren has also been a big fan of cryptocurrency, but perhaps less of the UFC—in his last fight, he was knocked out in five seconds.